Who was the first auto manufacturer to install a radio in a production car?
It is widely acknowledged that the 1931 Cadillac was the first to offer a factory radio. By 1932 all GM cars offered them. Most other manufacturers followed suit in 1932-33. The earliest years had the controls mounted to the steering column as the dashboards were not yet designed to accomodate them. By 1933 most controls were in the dashboard and the firewall mounted radio box continued into 1938 for the majority of manufacturers. Many trucks did not have provisions for a radio and aftermarket steering column controls and firewall radios continued into the late 40’s.
Ford. Car Radio In 1929, American Paul Galvin, the head of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, invented the first car radio. The first car radios were not available from carmakers. Consumers had to purchase the radios separately. Galvin coined the name “Motorola” for the company’s new products combining the idea of motion and radio. ———— 1933 Car radios were now beyond the experimental stage. In the USA Ford installed the markets first specially built car radio for a certain car model tailor made for the dashboard. New radio tubes were introduced. These are types 6A7, 6B7 and 6F7. 1934 The European manufacturers designed at this time only universal models. 1937 Ford in the USA are the first to use a steel rod as aerial. 1938 The telescope type aerial is presented. 1941 American Ford advertises a radio which can be preset for 5 stations and be operated to the desired station by a foot operated switch. 1948 Led by W. Shockley researchers at the Bell laboratories succeeded in invent
The first radios sold for use in cars were not installed by auto manufacturers, nor were they explivitly intended for use in cars. They were battery-powered, a common power source for radios in the early part of the 20th century, and were called travel radios – portable radios that could be used anywhere. They entered the market during the mid-1920s, by which time radio services had become well-established and were rapidly growing in popularity. The limitations of using travel radios in cars led to the development of radios designed specifically designed for service in automobiles. The automotive environment has many problems, including power supply, electrical interference from the ignition system, temperature fluctuations, vibration, and the problems associated with mobile receivers and antennae. Power is always an issue with tube equipment, because they require high excitation voltages – anywhere from 100 to 400 volts, depending on the tube design. Early automotive radios were usual
